In an interview with the BBC in 2009, prior to his historic speech in Egypt, President Barack Obama describes Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as a “stalwart ally” and a “force for good” in the Middle East. After recent violent attacks on the US Embassy in Cairo, President Obama said he did not consider Egypt an ally.

President Obama also says int he interview that it is not America’s role “to lecture, but to encourage, to lift up what we consider to be the values that will work.”